Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Ford is using organically derived materials all over their cars. Why?

Tech giant acquires the Internet phone service for a staggering $8.5 billion.

Defending the $8.5 billion

A decade ago, Israel had the highest density of start-ups in the world, and attracted more venture capital than anywhere. Today, the entrepreneurial hotbed feels decidedly lukewarm. Author Sarah Lacy analyzes why.

Pop-Up Magazine, the brainchild of journalist (and Fast Company contributor) Douglas McGray, expands this week by collaborating with ESPN: The Magazine.

A new set of $100,000 grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a range of mobile phone applications in an effort to improve global health. The latest projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation could turn smartphones into superphones that are part doctor, part secretary, part Orkin man. The Gates' Grand Challenges Exploration has previously given $100,000 grants to early-stage research focused on urgent health problems and come up with some amazing ideas for treatment .

Microsoft is bringing Skype--the firm that basically kicked off the home VoIP revolution--into its ever-expanding universe. Will it be worth the huge price tag? Microsoft 's purchase of Skype for a reported $8.5 billion is as good as done

1. Microsoft is poised to announce , maybe later this morning, that the rumored acquisition of Skype is actually true. New hints suggest the price may have pushed as high as $8.5 billion, and Microsoft is obviously imagining how Skype will plug into its enterprise offerings

Prius made hybrids acceptable. Now Toyota is going to try to use those good feelings to get people to plug in.

Univision has produced a new telenovela for web and mobile devices, adapting this staple of Spanish-language programming for the tablet age. Univision has just wrapped filming on a new telenovela meant to be streamed on the web and mobile devices. The series, called "No Me Hallo" ("Finding Myself") stars Angelica Vale, a major Mexican star who held the title role in "La Fea Más Bella," one of the inspirations for "Ugly Betty." It concerns a musical artist whose husband/manager leaves her, and will "air" in 15 mini-episodes, each three to five minutes long.

Have you ever had the experience of buying a deal from Groupon or LivingSocial, getting to the merchant (a restaurant, let's say), and awkwardly giving the server a crumpled piece of paper to prove that you deserve $20 worth of food for just $10?

The more you talk on your cell phone, the faster your battery runs down - right? Imagine talking into your mobile device with the opposite effect - charging the battery! An engineer in South Korea, Dr. Sang-Woo Kim of Sungkyunkwon University, has developed new technology that converts the noise into electricity.

It's perhaps the most convincing clue yet that Apple may be coming out with an iPhone 5 "Lite": Older iPhone 3GSs and iPad 1s are outselling individual competing units from Android handset makers.

Mergers and acquisitions can create strange bedfellows, but the drawbacks of companies' cultures not meshing together can have an impact on the bottom line. Through all the mergers he's been a part of, Mike Sprouse has yet to see one that doesn't entail at least a few hiccups.

João Dornellas, a Portuguese art director who's worked for big-name ad agencies like McCann Erickson and Ogilvy & Mather (Portugal), decided that his portfolio wasn't standing out enough on LinkedIn or the creative equivalent, Behance . So, in what may be a trendsetting move, he transformed it into a free iPad app .